Letters to the editor: 5/11

Letter attacks students in City of Poughkeepsie

The Journal's editors allowed a letter about education inequalities, school districts economy of scale and the funding of public schools to include a blatant attack against the students of Poughkeepsie City Schools. They could have edited Mr. Salem's letter, allowing him to make the same points but removing slanderous statements about the students ("Spackenkill district does not separate the races," April 28).

Poughkeepsie students have the same hopes and dreams as any student in Dutchess County. They just have a much harder road to travel to reach those dreams.

» Spackenkill spends 28 percent, or $5,439, more per student than Poughkeepsie

» The median family income for the city of Poughkeepsie is $39,061, which is $36,508 less than the rest of Dutchess ($75,569)

It is ironic that on Page 3A, "Experts debate how to fix American failing schools," there is a discussion on "The Poverty Problem," not placement of blame on students. Lastly, I don't know the Journal's policy on correcting false information. The current New York state school report cards show Poughkeepsie's graduation rate at 59 percent, not 46 percent.

Every spring at the community boathouse, Poughkeepsie and Spackenkill crew teams share the same facility. Besides one team wearing a little more blue than green, it is obvious to any observer that the students share the same hopes, dreams and aspirations - unlike Mr. Salem implied.

This is far in excess of the 2 percent property tax cap. The school district claims that this huge hike is needed because of two basic budgetary categories: mandated costs and essential costs. Furthermore, district officials also maintain that they are justified increasing the budget by such a large margin because they are free to exceed the 2 percent property tax cap by blaming state-mandated costs. However, district officials are free to cut costs in what they refer to as "essential costs."

Essential costs are subject to interpretation. Therefore, due to the unreasonable district proposed tax levy increase, additional cost cutting is needed in the "essential cost" category to bring down the 5.90 percent total tax levy increase to a more reasonable total tax levy increase of 2 percent. Since it appears that the school district is unwilling to cut costs further, property taxpayers should be aware that they are again facing a huge property tax hike. This budget, as proposed, must be defeated.

Helmut M. Gartner

Hopewell Junction

Torture whistleblower deserves pardon

A new report published by the nonpartisan Constitution Project is turning attention back to the United States' post-9/11 detainee torture program with more evidence that suggests it was sanctioned by the highest officials in government.

Only one person connected with the highly criminal, official U.S. torture has gone to prison: the whistleblower who exposed the abuse. Ex-CIA agent John Kiriakou was the first person to publicly acknowledge the CIA's use of waterboarding, and the decision has haunted him ever since.

Mr. Kiriakou spoke of the government turning against him after his disclosure, saying, "I've been audited by the IRS every single year since 2007. ... They found their opportunity and threw in a bunch of trumped-up charges they knew they could bargain away and finally found something with which to prosecute me."

Mr. Kiriakou is now serving a 30-month prison sentence for privately sharing the name of a colleague with a journalist as part of his efforts to expose U.S. torture. Of all the people who should be prosecuted and jailed for the torture program, John Kiriakou is not one of them.

President Barack Obama has consistently and vocally opposed torture over the past several years, espousing many of the same values and ideals that motivated Mr. Kiriakou's disclosures. John Kiriakou should not be in jail, and the president can and should pardon him for his courageous service to our nation.

Howard Jacobs

Hillsdale

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Letters to the editor: 5/11

The Journal's editors allowed a letter about education inequalities, school districts economy of scale and the funding of public schools to include a blatant attack against the students of